Perylene displays blue fluorescence. It is used as a blue-emitting dopant material in OLEDs, either pure or substituted. Perylene can be also used as an organic photoconductor. It has an absorption maximum at 434 nm, and as with all polycyclic aromatic compounds, low water solubility (1.2 x 10−5 mmol/L). Perylene has a molar absorptivity of 38,500 M−1cm−1 at 435.7 nm.

The perylene molecule consists of two naphthalene molecules connected by a carbon-carbon bond at the 1 and 8 positions on both molecules. All of the carbon atoms in perylene are sp2 hybridized. The structure of perylene has been extensively studied by X-ray crystallography.[2]